The goal of this project is to create a low cost, high functioning, workstation-based computer lab at a College of Education in the Philippines. The workstation-based lab is a cost effective and newly emerging approach to computer education that is easy to maintain (no viruses), easily expandable and contains no illegally pirated software!

This lab will be unlike anything else the college has attempted for several reasons: first it will make use of workstations instead of desktop systems. This means that there is one high power CPU that powers 10 fully functional workstations. The server will be configured with this setup, thereby setting up all workstations simultaneously. Additionally, the students’ inability to add files to the workstation using a USB drive limits the spread of viruses.

A large part of the cost saving is done by foregoing expensive Microsoft Windows licenses and using a single server to freely and legally share the installation. Further savings will be from the low power workstation, which will only run a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The CPU is located in the server, which is equivalent to a powerful desktop computer.

Finally, due to the school’s limited budget, the ability to create or expand a standard computer lab is prohibitively expensive. This lab’s small form factor lends itself to lower energy consumption, as the computers do not produce much heat and a great deal of money is saved on air conditioning.

This lab will serve as a model beginning for the College of Education computer lab. In the future the school will be able to easily expand and continue this server/workstation style of computer lab.

Note: This summary was provided by a Peace Corps Volunteer and the community administering this project.